


Recharge

by Solovei



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Anxiety, Azumane Asahi Week, Day Off, Gen, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pre-Slash, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 18:21:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5174339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>No. No, this just wasn’t going to happen today. He took off his shoes a whole three minutes after putting them on, and walked back up the stairs to his room, letting the door close behind him.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Recharge

**Author's Note:**

> This was the only thing for [Azumane Asahi Week](http://azumaneasahiweek.tumblr.com/) that I actually wrote on time because I'm terrible at deadlines. I ended up only finishing three out of the seven days anyway a variety of reasons, so rather than sticking them all into a nice multi-chapter fic, I'll just post them individually (my apologies to people who subscribed to me for SSSS fanfic and will get several emails about unrelated things).  
> Anyway, the theme for that day was "Holiday" but I decided to do something a little different.

It took Hinata about ten minutes into practice to realize something wasn’t quite right. Kageyama and Tsukishima were snarking at each other, Tanaka and Nishinoya were as loud as ever, but when his eyes slid over the group of people assembled in the gymnasium, something didn’t quite fit. Someone, Hinata realized, was missing.   
“Sugawara-senpai!” Hinata called out. If anyone knew what was wrong, it would be Suga.  “Um… where… do you know where Asahi-san is? He promised to show me a serve today…”  
Suga smiled back warmly. His personality was such a polar opposite of Kageyama’s that Hinata often wondered which side most other setters were on, the evil one or the good one. “Ah, he’s not going to be here today. He texted Daichi and said he’s taking a break. A ‘mental health day’, as he called it.”   
He  tilted his head to the side. “Mental health day?” he parroted back without understanding.  
“Well, you know how anxious he gets. Sometimes he just needs time off, you know?. Don’t worry, he’ll be back tomorrow.”  

\---

  
Asahi had meant to go to school. He really did - he went through his usual routine of waking up and eating and putting on his uniform but when it came to actually stepping out the front door and going, something inside him screamed in protest. Maybe it was the fact that he stayed up well past midnight last night finishing his homework after practice, or the fact that they had another practice match coming up. He tried to take some deep breaths like he learned in therapy - but this only made him dizzy.

No. No, this just wasn’t going to happen today. He took off his shoes a whole three minutes after putting them on, and walked back up the stairs to his room, letting the door close behind him. Asahi took off his uniform and neatly hung it on the back of the chair; for a few moments, he stood in the middle of his room in just his undershirt and boxer briefs, eyes closed and breathing heavily. Sleep, he realized - he needed sleep desperately.   
  
Crawling into bed, he curled up under a cocoon of blankets, letting it capture his breath and warm the rest of his body.   
“Asahi, dear? Did you forget something?” His mother called to the closed door.   
“No… I uh….”  
“Are you sick? Should I come in?”  
“No, it’s… it’s okay, I just… I don’t think I can go to school today.”  
There were a few moments of silence, but he knew that she was still there, thinking. “Well, alright… There’s rice and curry in the fridge, don’t forget to eat something, alright?”   
“I will, mom… Thanks for understanding…”   
“Sure, dear. I have to go to work now but… phone me if you need something!”   
Hearing her walk back down the hallway and descend the stairs, Asahi popped his head out from the blanket. It was nice to lay here and listen to the noises of the house, things that go on as if he wasn’t there at all - dishes clattering in the sink, chairs scraping against the floor, the door opening and then closing. More faintly now, the car starting in the driveway and pulling out into the street. Lulled by the sounds of morning, he drifted off into a deep, dreamless sleep.

\---

Asahi awoke three hours later to the chiming of his cell phone. The extra sleep helped, and he spent some time laying in bed and mentally naming the things he could see around him - bookshelves holding an equal number of light novels and classical literature, stuffed animals staring back at him with friendly plush faces, his desk lamp with the note on it reminding him to show Hinata that serve, a calendar hanging on the wall with the photo of a cat displayed for this month. His therapist had said this was helpful, and it was, occasionally; sometimes he just did it for fun. Stretching, he sat up and pushed hair out of his eyes - the elastic had come out while he was asleep, sending dark brown waves tumbling down his shoulders. Wrapping the blanket around himself, the padded over to where he had left his phone, entering his password with one hand.

Daichi’s name was displayed on the screen under a cheerfully rotating message icon. So this was what woke him up…

 

> >hey where????? are you???? [9: 38 AM]  
>  >takeda-sensei said you werent in class [9:39 AM]

Asahi adjusted his blanket over his shoulders and began to type:

 

> >Taking a mental health day. Need to recharge my batteries. See you tomorrow!

He took it slow, as if methodically righting the mistakes he had made earlier that morning. Having slept, he cooked and ate a proper breakfast to make up for the meager meal of tea and bread he managed to wolf down. The day stretched out in front of him, bright and shining like a river seen from an airplane. He could do anything, go anywhere… for just one day, Asahi could fully inhabit his life in the way that he wanted.   
  
After his second breakfast, he went back upstairs and lay on his bed finishing a short story collection he hadn’t had much time to read. Sunlight filtered through his window, bringing with it the chirping of birds and the quiet hum of suburban traffic. At some point, a group of elementary school kids walked past with their teacher, disjointedly singing along to a song Asahi had vague memories of hearing. 

\---

  
He resolved not to look at his bedside clock, or his cellphone - no, this will be a day out of time, he decided. He would do things as his will demanded, without worrying about consequences. As such, he didn’t know when it was that he set off to the grocery store, but definitely in the afternoon. He took his time wandering the aisles in search of something to make for dinner - cooking always relaxed him, the process of taking things and making them better, making things people enjoyed and that brought him joy. Idly, as he considered two different varieties of tofu,  he wondered if he would ever get to cook for someone special. Maybe he would hold out a spoon to them as he cooked and they would try it for salt and flavor, and then he would smile shyly and they would kiss… and then when the meal was done, they would sit close by and talk about their day, fingers loosely intertwined. He couldn’t really think of who that person would be, but he certainly spent a lot of time lately imagining the things he would do with them.

When he returned from the store, Asahi had a light lunch and decided to tackle the homework he didn’t get to last night. He felt better now, more able to handle things when mental and physical exhaustion weren’t sitting on his chest. The impending panic attack he had felt that morning had dissipated almost entirely. He didn’t even notice the time passing as he threw himself, much more enthusiastically, into his studies.

\---

Even though he had spent the day trying not to worry about anything, Asahi still went for a run after dinner - he had missed volleyball practice and knew that Daichi would be mad if he found out he spent the whole day sitting around the house. Coming out of the shower in the evening, he was surprised to find his phone chiming again. Toweling off his wet hair, he opened the new text message.

 

> Nishinoya [9:16 PM]  
>  >hey dude! missed u @ practice today. suga said u r taking a day off to get better! this is rly good!!! u gotta stay focused for nationals!!!! shoyo asked abt u 2. anywayz i guess just wanted 2 say, u better show up tmrw or ill be very very sad!!! lolol ok goodnite! ~noya

Asahi was smiling as he fell back onto his bed, staring at the jumble of letters and numbers displayed on his screen. That person he often thought about, what kind of a person were they? What if that person was someone like Nishinoya, someone who seemed so different to himself and yet…. and yet. As he drifted off to sleep for the second time today, he let his thoughts wander on that refrain.

**Author's Note:**

> Also if you can't tell yet I love writing the different ways Karasuno boys text - Daichi's texts are very dad-like, either too much punctuation or none at all.  
> Noya, of course, writes like a 10-year-old who just discovered chatspeak.  
> Don't forget to leave comments or kudos, or drop me a line on [my tumblr](http://solosvejs.tumblr.com)


End file.
